Lily Evans's Dilemma
by writergirl318
Summary: Lily Evans has a choice to make as sides start to form. Will she choose Severus Snape with his loyalty and love for her? Or will she choose James Potter, the one who annoys her to death?
1. School Begins Again

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Grr. **

**Anyways, this is my second fanfic. YAY! Please remember to read and review!**

Chapter 1: School begins Again

"Lily Evans, hurry up!"

Emmeline Vance and Alice Rawlins waved from their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, holding the door open for me and my best friend as we headed down the aisle towards them.

I tried to hurry, pulling Severus Snape along with me, but a gang of four boys I absolutely hated stepped out in front of us. "Where are you going with Evans, Snivellus? Isn't she too pretty for you?"

He audibly gritted his teeth, and I felt his hand slip away from my grasp to retrieve his wand from the pocket of his jeans. I snatched his hand again, knowing things would just be worse if wands were brought into the equation.

"What do you want, Potter?" I spat at the boy who seemed almost like the leader of the pack. He had untidy hair that he ran his hand through and glasses that framed his hazel eyes. A mocking smile was plastered on his face, a smile that I hated more than any other.

James Potter shrugged nonchalantly. I hated the way he could do everything perfect without even trying and the way he thought he owned the world. "Not much I suppose," he sighed in answer to my question. "I just thought you might like to have a better guy to hold hands with than slimy little Snivellus here, and I'm always here with open arms."

Sev's hand twitched towards his wand again, but I held it firmly in mine. "Shut up, Potter. You think that you're the greatest thing that ever graced this world, but your just an –"

"Language, Evans," the boy next to Potter drawled. Sirius Black had dark hair that fell in his face and matched his black eyes. The troublemaker in him shinned brightly just like it did in Potter. They were best friends and partners in crime, always pulling pranks on the innocent children of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "We wouldn't want you to get detention with that stick shoved up your –"

"Can't you have some civility, Padfoot?" the third boy chided. Remus Lupin was my favorite of the group that called themselves the Marauders. He was more studious and wasn't always in on the pranks. I noticed the gleaming badge on his chest that resembled mine and realized that he had been made prefect this year, too.

"When it's Evans? Have you heard the words that issue from her mouth? They aren't all hexes," Black chirped gleefully. It was like their lives revolved around ruining mine.

Before I could register anything else, I had instinctively done the very thing that I had been trying to prevent Sev from doing. I pulled out my wand and pointed it at the boys. "You know, I did learn quite a few more hexes over the summer."

The shortest of the boys, a little one named Peter Pettigrew, began to shake. "M-maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all, Prongs."

Potter laughed, slyly pulling out his own wand. "I still think that it was an excellently brilliant idea, mates! How better would I be able to prove that I am more accomplished in hexes than the undefeatable Lily Evans?"

I gave Potter my most loathsome glare that I reserved just for him. "You're such an arrogant, pig-headed toe-rag that probably isn't even literate!"

Pettigrew scratched his hear, a confused look clearly displayed. "What does literate mean?"

Lupin gazed over at Pettigrew with a cynical look. "She's offending Prongs by saying that he's so dumb that he can't read or write."

Sev sneered and finally wrenched his hand from mine and pointed his wand at Potter. His long black hair fell like a curtain around his face, and his pallid face was growing red with anger. "Don't you dare hurt her, Potter."

Potter laughed and pointed at Sev's bag. "_Diffindo,_" he said with a laugh. Sev's bag split open, causing his quills, parchment and ink to spill all over the corridor of the now moving train.

"Oh, you've done it now," I muttered. "_Levicorpus!_" I exclaimed the jet of magic emerging from the tip of my wand and shot into Potter. He was suddenly dangling from his leg in midair. I giggled to myself and saw that Sev had already performed the Jelly-leg Jinx on Black.

I lowered my wand, and Sev followed the motion. Lupin looked panicked but not nearly as bad as Pettigrew who looked like he was about to wet his pants. Potter struggled in midair, yelling, "Hey, what is this? What did you do to me, Evans?"

I laughed and performed a spell that repaired Sev's bag and put all the things back in. As I strutted past him I cheerfully said, "Have fun getting yourself out of that one, Potter."

****

Emma peeked out of our compartment again and laughed at an image down the hall. "I can't believe you did that to James Potter, Lily! And he's _still_ there!"

I beamed, my victory over Potter making me euphoric. "I must say, I'm quite amazing. Maybe I should let him down, now, though."

Sev groaned and said, "Why do you have to ruin all of our fun?"

"Otherwise, he'll pass out from all the blood going to his head and it won't be fun anymore," I explained as I stepped into the hall with my wand in hand.

"Oh Potter," I called when I had reached him. When I saw his face, I noticed that his glasses had fallen on the floor and he was squinting to see anything at all. "Are you all right there, chap? I thought I might show some mercy and let you down before I get in too much trouble." I muttered the counter-curse under my breath so he couldn't hear it, and he dropped to the ground with a satisfying thump.

He groaned and searched around for his glasses on the floor. When he found them, he put them on and gazed up at me, not bothering to stand up. "Have we learned a lesson about harassing people now?" I asked in a sugar-sweet tone.

I inwardly groaned when he grinned up at me with one of his mocking smiles. "I think I'd learn better if I just had someone explain the concept to me… perhaps over a lovely, romantic dinner?" he asked hopefully.

I resisted the urge to kick him hard in the stomach. "You're such a toe-rag, Potter," I said, resignations clear in my tone as I walked away. I didn't always have to stoop to his level, and my anger had burned out anyways. I decided just to ignore him for the rest of the train trip for the sake of my sanity.

Everything was uneventful after that, especially since I was attempting to ignore Potter. I made my rounds as prefect through the train and ran into Lupin a few times, letting us exchange a tiny conversation that wasn't actually half bad. Lupin was actually fairly nice, he just happened to fall in with the wrong friends in my opinion.

Once we got to Hogsmeade, we scrambled into our own carriage and chatted away. Of course, sev was quiet most of the time, but that was the norm behavior for him. We said goodbye to Sev when he left to sit at the Slytherin table with a few of his friends like Avery and Goyle.

I listened closely as the Sorting Hat sang of turmoil to come when the houses would be separated among themselves and quarrel, bringing friend and foe together, but tear brothers and sisters and friends and lovers apart. The song was eerie and lone, and frankly terrified me to death. Could he not have sung of the days that would come after that hardship, at least make it seem worthwhile? The song sent goosebumps up and down my arms and left me shivering with a nonexistent cold.

Afterwards, everyone broke into whispers of what the Sorting Hat meant by such awful things. "What's that supposed to mean?" Emma whispered.

"The Hat's never said anything like that before!" Alice whispered. "I wonder what he meant…"

"I have a feeling that he was being quite blunt with his words," I murmured looking around the room. Potter was successful in catching my eye and he winked, as though not giving a care in the world about what some dumb hat said about anything. But something flashed in his eyes before they turned away of a silent agreement, something that I did not care to bother myself with. Sev seemed concerned and flashed me a weak and unsure smile.

Professor McGonagall began reading names off of her long parchment, and each child in turn would sit on the stool as the teacher placed the sorting hat on their heads. Each table would clap whenever a first year was sorted into their group. The sorting brought back wistful memories of the first day I stepped into the Great Hall.

_We all trudged along behind Professor McGonagall quailing whenever a group of students seemed too mean. I was basically Severus's shadow, when I gazed up, taking in the enchanted ceiling, I tugged on his robes._

_ "Severus," I whispered, terrified at this place. Surely they would kick me out, claiming I wasn't a witch at all, just some freak that seemed like one. "It's going to rain in here. What are they going to do? They won't let us get wet, will they?"_

_ Sev chuckled, taking in the purple clouds billowing above. "It's not really the sky up there; the ceiling's enchanted so that it looks like the sky. It won't rain on us." _

_ "You must be the daftest mudblood I've ever had the misfortune to come across!" A boy beside me snickered. He was absolutely dumb-looking. I wouldn't have been surprised if he flunked out before Christmas._

_ All of the sudden, a boy with messy black hair that flew in every direction and glasses that hid hazel eyes flung himself in front of me and Sev with his wand drawn. "Take that back, Avery! At least she's smarter than you!"_

_ Sev pulled out his wand, too and pointed it at Avery. "Don't call Lily something like that! She's not a-a you-know-what!"_

_ McGonagall took the time to intervene. "Boys! Put those wands away before someone gets hurt! You had best learn to use them before pulling them out! And why do you even have them out in the first place?"_

_ "Professor," James Potter jumped in to explain his coming to my defense at once. "Avery called her a—a—"_

_ "Speak clearly, Mr. Potter, is it?"_

_ "Professor," I interjected shyly, "He called me a mudblood. I didn't take offense, but everyone else did. I've been called many more nasty names than that before…"_

_ "Detention, Avery," McGonagall's voice sang out shrilly. She looked down to me and the other two boys that had defended me. "And someone explain to her what that is."_

_ Whispers rang through the Hall at a student getting detention before he was sorted. That was a feat that even James wouldn't accomplish. The said boy leaned over and said to me, "That word is a bad word for people like you. It's far worse than any name you'll ever hear because it's basically saying that you're not as good as him because you came from muggles. He was saying that you're blood is… diluted, you could say, because you come from muggles but he is from a family of witches and wizards. He thinks that it makes him better than you, and that you don't have a right to be here. He's a nasty bloke, that one."_

_ But now I was staring at my feet, clad in my lovely trainers. "Maybe he's right… Maybe I really shouldn't be here if I don't know simple things like that there are enchanted ceilings here and such…"_

_ "Don't say that, Lily." Sev firmly whispered. "You absolutely belong here. My mum came from muggles, and she was brilliant. Almost got perfect O's on her NEWTS."_

_ I gazed at him, "What are—"_

_ I was cut off by McGonagall calling the boy named Avery up to sit under the Sorting Hat. It barely skimmed his head before it cried "SLYTHERIN!" He left to the table clad in green and silver amidst their rambunctious cheers._

_ "Evans, Lily," McGonagall called, and my body went rigid with fear. I walked up the steps to her and slid myself onto the stool. I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the leather of the hat slide down almost covering my eyes._

Lily Evans,_ a voice in my head whispered,_ what a beautiful mind you have, so complex.

_ The fear almost chocked me and I'd figured that I'd gone raving mad. "Who are you?" I whispered in my mind._

The hat, of course,_ it muttered dryly. _A muggle-born, I see. Lacking confidence in your place here. You have a brilliant mind; that might earn you a spot in Ravenclaw. You are trustworthy, as well; perhaps your home should be Hufflepuff, but wait! You obviously have a fiery temper that will help you fight and courage that brings on strength. I know that your home is most absolutely…. "GRYFFINDOR!"

_I opened my eyes to find that the_ _table with a gold and red banner waving above it with a lion embedded there had many who were clapping and hooting as loud as possible, seemingly trying to outdo the Slytherins. I hopped down from the stool and sat at the seat available next to the closest Gryffindor. They immediately began introducing themselves to me, and before I knew it, Potter and his three cohorts were seated beside me along with Emma and Alice._

_ I waited tensely for Sev to come sit with us, too, and when he sat underneath the hat, my hands balled up in anticipation. "SLYTHERIN!" the hat cried as he weakly left to join his new friends, friends that weren't me._

I remembered how upset I had been, thinking that he wouldn't be my friend anymore if he was in a different house, but we managed to keep our friendship going. I felt angry at myself every time I remembered how I thought that maybe Potter could be my friend, too.

I have never been more wrong about anything in my life. The very next day, I found him pulling pranks and being horrible to me so that the only people I hated more than him were a few choice Slytherins. How much I hate James Potter.


	2. How To Get Detention

**This is the second chapter! Yay! Please read and review! Anyways, just in case any of you were wondering, I wrote this because I feel like Lily and James were meant to be, but Snape had to have some good in his life!**

**Disclaimer: I'm not rich, so I don't own the characters, only what happens. *sigh***

Chapter 2: How to Get Detention

Alice groaned. We were only into our second week at Hogwarts, and already, we were almost buried alive beneath homework. "O.W.L.s aren't until the end of next term! Why do we have to do all of this now? It's not like we'll remember it!"

Emma, Sev, Alice and I were all sitting beneath our tree as we considered it by the lake. "This is so stupid," Sev ranted to no one in particular. "When you make a Polyjuice potion, you have to stir it counter-clockwise four turns and _then_ turn clockwise."

"Whatever you say, Sev," I muttered, struggling though Transfiguration. It was just a harder subject than usual. An Animagus was a witch or wizard who could change into an animal at will, but who would want to do that?

Emma saw what I was working on and said, "Lily, if you could be an Animagus, what would you be?"

"What kind of a question is that? It's not like I will ever be one." I said, not sure.

"Just answer it," she snapped. "I'd be a unicorn; they're so lovely."

Alice snorted. "Yeah, 'cause it's so practical. Everyone sees unicorns walking down the road every day. I'd be something more like… a cat, like McGonagall, or maybe a dog."

I sighed. "I'd be a bird; I could travel so quickly. Maybe I would be falcon; they seem so… brave, or maybe an owl so I could read other people's mail."

The girls laughed as I turned pink, but Sev looked thoughtful. "I might be a snake," he said, his eyes focusing on nothing in particular, "or a raven. They're so smart."

I couldn't help but snicker. "Sometimes I really think you should've been a Ravenclaw. I mean, you know more in Potions than Professor Slughorn, and you're really good at all of our other classes."

Sev shook his head. "_You_ should have ended up in Ravenclaw. You're the top student in our year."

Alice cleared her throat, dragging our attention to her. "Lily is the top student in our year _with Potter_."

Sev and I flinched. "I don't see how he does it," Emma commented absently. "I mean have any of you ever seen him study? I bet he gets perfect O's on his O.W.L.s."

"Uh-Oh," Alice muttered. "Trouble at three o' clock."

I turned in the direction she had gestured and scowled. Of course the Marauders were headed in our direction, Potter leading them with a cocky smile. I couldn't resist; I should've kept my head down and ignored them, being mature. Instead, I had to yell across the grounds, "Hey, Potter, didn't Professor McGonagall tell you that you were gonna fall over if you didn't deflate your fat head?"

By now they were drawing closer. "Ha ha, Evans," he said sarcastically. "I came to settle a score." He had pulled out his wand.

I stood up and pulled out mine, too. Emma, who was closest to me, tugged on my robe like a child. "Lil," she muttered quietly, "I really don't think you should do this. I don't think Madame Pomphrey will be very ecstatic about this."

"I don't care."

"Aw, Little Lily's gonna get hurt," Black prodded my anger, knowing that his stupid little baby-talk-voice would make me furious.

I took the bait. "Shut it, Black," and then I performed a hex that stuck his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He tried to talk but it was only "Nnnmf! Nnnmmmff! Evnnmms!" Lupin turned his attention to Black, leaving me to deal with scared Pettigrew and Potter.

Potter threw a hex at me, quick as lightning; I barely had enough time to block it. I attacked, and he deflected it. Alice stood up with her wand drawn, but Pettigrew shakily shot a hex that made boils break out on her skin.

I shot another hex at Potter which he barely dodged as he fired one back. "_Petrificus Totalus!_" I shouted just before his hex hit me. He froze and fell over backwards. I ended up with skin the same color as my hair, bright red. I squealed and muttered a spell that returned it to its normal color as Lupin unfroze Potter.

I saw a dark brown stick lying in the grass, not far from Potter. "_Accio,_ Potter's wand!" His wand flew into my open hand, and I waved it around, flaunting it to anger him.

"Hey!" He looked ready to charge at me. "You'd better give that back! I can hurt you without a wand, too!"

I drew back my arm, ready to fling it in the lake. "Stop!" I shouted, "Or the Giant Squid has a new plaything!"

He froze, his glare more ferocious than ever. "You wouldn't dare," he threatened.

"Neither would you," I retorted. My expression turned taunting. "What are you going to do, hex me?"

Something like a growl came from him, and then he rushed at me, running faster than I thought possible. The wand had barely left my hand when he tackled me, and we went tumbling into the lake with his wand. I screamed, lucky enough to have taken a deep breath just before the water pressed in on us. His wand was not far away from us, and he grabbed it, turning to point it at me.

Maybe it was because I couldn't swim well, but I grabbed his shirt swirling in the water. He squinted down at me, making me realize that his glasses were either lost in the water or had fallen off when we tumbled through the grass.

He nodded, and we made some sort of an informal truce until we reached air. He took hold of my arm and began helping me swim upward. I hadn't realized that we'd sunk down so far until my lungs began to burn with the need for air.

Suddenly, Potter slipped away from me, falling downwards, a green web wrapped around his leg as he struggled to get away from the Grindylow. I panicked and somehow found myself wrapping my arms around his waist and trying to pull him upwards. I gave up, knowing I didn't have the strength and found my wand still gripped in my hand. I blasted who-knows-what at the Grindylow which let out an earsplitting scream and let go of him.

Black spots began to cloud my vision, and I struggled to help Potter swim to the surface. Suddenly, I found myself choking, having been forced to find some sort of air, but only filling my lungs with water. I began to thrash violently, struggling to find air. Potter was shaking his head as quickly as he could and he held me closer, weakly struggling to find air.

XxXoOoXxX

My lungs constricted and I found myself coughing up water, what seemed like gallons of it. Sev was patting my back when I woke up, and Potter seemed like he had run a marathon. I was surprised to find that both Sev and Sirius Black were sopping wet like me and Potter.

"Merlin, Evans," Potter said when he had regained some sort of breath, "Can't you hold your breath?"

"I saved your life; just shut it," I snapped, really not in the mood to listen to a prat like him.

"I saved yours, too," He defied hotly. "I didn't have to, but I did!"

"Neither did I!" I retorted. "I guess we don't owe each other anything, Potter."

He nodded sharply. "Now we can just go back to hating each other."

"We don't even have to mention it," I agreed with him for the first time ever. He stuck out his hand, and I shook it. We both let go as soon as possible.

"What are you two going on about?" Black asked, wearing the same confused look as Sev. Neither of us answered. I picked up my books from the grass and pulled Sev with me as we left.

I ignored the stares I attracted as they puzzled over my dripping wet clothes. I marched through the castle with Sev, Alice and Emma at my heels. "Miss Evans!"

I stopped dead and turned to face Professor McGonagall looking over my sorry state. "Why on earth are you wet?"

Her eyes watched our group like a hawk, waiting for one of us to give it away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Marauders heading down our way, too. They were deep in whatever they were talking about, and I only had enough time to register that Potter was half angry and half disappointed about something before Professor McGonagall had called them over, too.

She glared at us all, giving us what my mum would've referred to as the evil eye. "Now I don't know why four students are soaking wet, but I demand to know right now."

I shuffled my feet. Sev fidgeted beside me. I could see the mechanics of Potter's mind whirring to find a way out of this predicament. "We, erm, thought that we might, erm, take a dip in the lake…?"

"That is the best excuse you can come up with, Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked like she had dealt with something like this way too often. With Potter, she probably did. "Now I know this will be awful. Someone had better tell me the truth, or I'll give you all detention for the rest of the year."

"I, erm, attempted, to, uh, throw Potter's wand in the, the lake…" I mumbled so quietly that I had to repeat myself twice before she heard me. When she finally did hear, she went absolutely livid.

I had never seen anyone turn almost purple in anger (Although Petunia's boyfriend, Vernon was pretty close). "_WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? THROWING SOMEONE'S WAND AND POSSIBLY DAMAGING IT? I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, LILY EVANS!"_

Someone might've well magnified a Howler by ten times in the hallway. Potter interrupted her, just before she gave out my punishment. "Actually, Professor, I, erm, well, we tried to hex each other and she told me that she would throw my wand in if I tried to hurt her. I, er, tried to get it, and we fell in as a result…"

Her face lessened in its red colour by at least five shades. "I should've known that you would be more involved than what she would say. "Mr. Black, Mr. Snape, why are you two wet?"

"James and Lily didn't come up for a long time, and we got worried, Professor," Black explained. "When we jumped in, Lily and James were close to drowning and Lily had already passed out."

She returned her glares to me and Potter. "Detention for two weeks. And I'll have to take fifty points from Gryffindor. But for Mr. Black, fifteen points, and fifteen points for Mr. Snape. You two will report to my office at eight tonight. Don't be late." Was I only imagining the pointed look she gave Potter when she said that last part? I doubted it.

**Sorry the chapter is short. I really needed an update. Please review and subscribe. I'd love to hear your opinions!**


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